Skills development cannot be treated as a one-time intervention.
A recent World Economic Forum article makes an important distinction between skilling, upskilling and reskilling. Each serves a different purpose, depending on where a person is in their career and how the labour market is changing.
For organisations, this has an important implication.
Training someone for their current role is different from preparing them to take on greater responsibility. It is also different from helping them transition into an entirely new role or field.
As an HR leader, I believe organisations need to see skills development as a continuum, connecting learning with workforce planning, internal mobility and career development.
The goal should not simply be to train more people. It should be to help people continue developing and adapting as roles, organisations and industries evolve.
That requires a more holistic approach to building workforce capability.